Fantasy

"Here is a pictorial survey of the artists whose legendary heroes, beautiful heroines, sprites, elves, sorcerers, demons, imaginary landscapes, and supernatural adventures dominated Victorian and Edwardian illustration from 1860 to 1920. These highly inventive artists delved deeply into the unconsciousness and drew upon folklore, mythology, medieval art, and the remote past to discover symbols and images to illustrate the fantastic fiction and poetry of the time. Their style took its inspiration from many artistic sources: the pre-Raphaelite rediscovery of a medieval world that never was; the Symbolist movement in art and poetry; the late romantics and decadents; Art Nouveau; the art and design of the Orient. Setting the stage for 20th century surrealism, they looked beyond the world of reality into the world of dreams and ancestral memory."--dust jacket.